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Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.

Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308

Advanced Load Identification 

and Management for Buildings

Cooperative Research and Development 

Final Report

CRADA Number: CRD-11-422

NREL Technical Contact: Luigi Gentile Polese

CRADA Report

NREL/TP-5500-62020

May 2014
NOTICE

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Cover Photos: (left to right) photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 16416, photo from SunEdison, NREL 17423, photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 

16560, photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL 17613, photo by Dean Armstrong, NREL 17436, photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 17721.

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This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.

Cooperative Research and Development Final Report

In accordance with Requirements set forth in Article XI.A(3) of the CRADA document, this document is 

the final CRADA report, including a list of Subject Inventions, to be forwarded to the Office of Science 

and Technical Information as part of the commitment to the public to demonstrate results of federally 

funded research.

CRADA Number: CRD-11-422

CRADA Title: Advanced Load Identification and Management for Buildings

Parties to the Agreement: Eaton Corporation

Joint Work Statement Funding Table Showing DOE Commitment: 

Estimated Costs NREL Shared Resources

Year 1 $ 00.00

Year 2 $ 00.00

Year 3 $ 00.00

TOTALS $ 00.00

Abstract of CRADA Work: 

The goal of this CRADA work is to support Eaton Innovation Center (Eaton) efforts to develop advanced 

load identification, management technologies, and solutions to reduce building energy consumption by 

providing fine granular visibility of energy usage information and safety protection of miscellaneous 

electric loads (MELs) in commercial and residential buildings. MELs load identification and prediction 

technology will be employed in a novel “Smart eOutlet*” to provide critical intelligence and information 

to improve the capability and functionality of building load analysis and design tools and building power 

management systems.

The work scoped in this CRADA involves the following activities: 

• Development and validation of business value proposition for the proposed technologies 

through voice of customer investigation, market analysis, and third-party objective assessment

• Development and validation of energy saving impact as well as assessment of environmental 

and economic benefits

• “Smart eOutlet” concept design, prototyping, and validation

• Field validation of the developed technologies in real building environments. 

(*Another name denoted as “Smart Power Strip (SPS)” will be used as an alternative of the name “Smart eOutlet” 

for a clearer definition of the product market position in future work.)

Summary of Research Results: 

Buildings account for 40% of the primary energy consumption in the United States, with 22% consumed 

by the residential sector and 18% by the commercial sector. Of the primary energy used by commercial 

buildings, about 30% is used for heating, ventilation, and space cooling (HVAC), 25% for lighting, and 

6% for water heating. These main, or primary, end-uses have received most of the attention for energy 

efficiency research and technology development. About 30% of the primary energy is consumed by 
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This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.

MELs, but this end-use has received far less attention. MELs end-use in commercial buildings includes a 

wide variety of devices—major categories include electronics, computers, refrigeration, cooking, and 

“other,” but there are hundreds of device types within these categories (U.S. DOE 2009). Figure 1 shows 

an estimated breakdown of the energy use for the main end-uses in 2006 along with a forecast for 2020. 

MELs are an increasingly large percentage of building energy use, projected to grow from 30% to 35% of 

the commercial building total from 2006 to 2020. This growth is in small part due to advances in the 

energy efficiency of main building loads.

Figure 1: Estimates of commercial building primary energy end-uses. 

(Source: U.S. DOE 2009)

The main goal of the project was to assist Eaton in the development of a potential new product that would 

enable the effective management of MELs through the use of novel load identification techniques to 

identify and substantially reduce losses from neglected and standby loads. 

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) role in the project was to support Eaton by: 

- Helping identify and quantify target opportunities based on NREL’s practical MELs experiences

- Assisting with the definition of the business value proposition for the smart strip/e-Outlet product

- Collecting initial performance data through a prototype field test at NREL’s Research Support 

Facility (RSF) 

NREL supported Eaton in the collection and identification of high-level needs for MELs management for 

commercial buildings through Voice of Customer (VoC) interviews. Two of the interviews organized by 

NREL were with the NASA Sustainability Base and with the RSF Building Management Organization. 

NREL also provided assistance to Eaton on MELs studies and research results, and provided input on 

energy saving opportunities through control strategies.

Eaton conducted a live demonstration at NREL’s RSF of the integrated Smart Receptacle system. After a 

preliminary test with one prototype, NREL conducted a limited field test with eight prototypes for a 

period of four weeks. The main goal of the field test was to collect internal data for as many live MELs as 

possible, through rotations of the devices at intervals of 1-2 days. A final project report from Eaton with a 

summary of research results is currently planned for release to DOE. 

Subject Inventions Listing: None.

Report Date: 4/24/2014

Responsible Technical Contact at Alliance/NREL: Luigi Gentile Polese

This document contains NO confidential, protectable, or proprietary information.